Job Responsibilities
I am a PhD scientist/patent attorney. The main area of my
practice is to help scientists and engineers apply for patents in
the United States and other countries as well. Because of my
firm's strength in FDA regulatory work and life sciences industry
in general, I am also able to work on issues such FDA regulations
on drug advertising and promotions, generic versus brand name
competition, etc. There are also plenty of opportunities to work
with venture capital firms to help then identify a biotech target
firm and make investment decisions by analyzing the strength of
the target's patent/intellectual property position and portfolio.
There are also transactional projects such as in and out
licensing of technology. The diversity of a patent attorney's
practice depends on whether the firm provides such diverse
opportunities as well as on the attorney's personal interests.
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Job Requirements
I received a PhD first; and after two years of postdoc, I went to
law school full time at UC Berkeley, which offers the best
intellectual property law program. Another possible pathway is to
apply for a firm's patent agent training program or technical
advisor/specialist program. That way, you will have to work
during law school (part time or full time depending on individual
firm's policy) but will be making money and saving tuitions.
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Uppers
The upper about my job is I get to be at the forefront of biotechnology. I
usually review grant applications by professors before they are even submitted
to, e.g., the NIH, not to mention manuscripts, meeting presentations. Companies
are even more careful about what to and what not to publish or present to the
public. Patent attorneys help companies make such strategic decisions to fit in
each company's business plan.
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Downers
Downer is billable hours--I have to keep track of minutes that I
spent for a client. Billable is almost the only way a law firm
can make money. So by filling out the survey, I am losing at
least half an hour billable...
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Lifestyle
It varies from firm to firm and person to person. Generally it i
manageable--about 50-60 hours per week with efficiency (i.e., about 40 house
billable).
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Compensation
Base salary is $125000 for first year associate in large general
practice law firm or top tier IP boutiques. Not sure about bonus
yet, but typically it is at least $10000 at the end of the first
year.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Don't do it if you like hands on bench work--I am the exact
opposite, so are my colleagues--there are at least 10 PhD
chemists or biologists who got tired of bench work and became
patent attorneys/agents.
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